If you have been around this blog long enough, you will know that I get excited for craft challenges. I like the idea of pushing myself a little each day to explore new mediums or master old ones. So this year, I have been thinking about Inktober. What is Inktober you ask? Jake Parker created Inktober in 2009 as a challenge to improve his inking skills and develop positive drawing habits. It has since grown into a worldwide endeavor with thousands of artists taking on the challenge every year.
Another thing you might know about me is I like to stretch challenges to fit my needs whether it’s a reading or crafting challenge, I always find a way to make it work for me.
So I am stretching this challenge to include my colored pencils and inks in my coloring books. That way I can also meet one of my personal goals which is to color more of my coloring books. Which we all know I have quite a large collection.
For the Inktober challenge you are supposed to draw each day. So I went through my coloring books and found one that might make the challenge less challenging for me. It is called. Matchstick Mouse – A Halloween coloring book and Matchstick Mouse – An Autumn coloring book. The images are really small and simple. So I might be able to complete one in a day or two.
Despite the fact that I am starting late, I will try to post a few days a week of the pages I color in this book for the remainder of the month.
Let’s see how many I can complete by the end of October. Let me know if you are participating in this challenge.
Happy coloring!
Hello Everyone! I don’t know what I am thinking because June is a busy month but I am always up for a challenge. From June 1 – 30th is the 30-day coloring challenge created and hosted by none other than Kathy Racoosin at 
This is from Day 1 which was on Saturday. I convinced my youngest, to help me kick off the challenge by coloring with me. He is coloring in one of my old coloring books that contain a bunch of mandalas. I helped him select a color scheme and he dove in. I think I will try to get him to color with me on another day too because although he didn’t want to admit it, he was having fun coloring and chatting with me.
I chose the “In My Garden” coloring book. I am always discovering more about myself each time I sit to create. What I noticed was I gravitated to this smaller book to kick off the challenge. There is something comforting about a smaller canvas. It’s not too small it’s more of mid-range size about 8×8. So it’s fun to hold and easy to turn while coloring. I used one of my pre-made color swatches that I created a few weeks back to help me with my color selection. I find them so handy and when I use them the pages always look more cohesive.
So I pushed the imaged flush right and cut off a little more of the balloon to line up with the right edge of the card. Problem solved!! I also designed two sentiment designs (love, forever) on my Silhouette and played around to ensure the digi when cut out, would fit nicely with the word. I used the print and cut feature on my Silhouette (yes I use a Cricut cutting mat – don’t judge) to cut out the cards and then placed the image on each to see which sentiment I would use for this card.
I ended up using the ‘Forever’ sentiment and matted it on American Crafts ‘Everyday’ patterned paper.